pursy
1 Americanadjective
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short-winded, especially from corpulence or fatness.
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corpulent or fat.
adjective
adjective
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short-winded
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archaic fat; overweight
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pursy1
1400–50; late Middle English purcy, variant of Middle English pursif < Anglo-French porsif, variant of Old French polsif, derivative ( see -ive) of polser to pant, heave. See push
Origin of pursy2
Vocabulary lists containing pursy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"For in the fatness of these pursy times/ Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg," says Hamlet to Gertrude.
From Time Magazine Archive
On the other side of her was an individual in a civic chain, whose fat, pursy, apoplectic appearance, and nose of the colour of an Orleans plum, thoroughly realised my mental picture of the Bailie.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847 by Various
But the pursy old man with the double chin and spectacles on his forehead, the height of which the wisp of reddish-gray hair could not hide, had observed it all.
From The Girls of Central High on the Stage The Play That Took The Prize by Gertrude W. Morrison
He might be the mayor or an alderman of some provincial town, some local big-wig, or even a pursy magnate of commerce.
From The Wayfarers by J. C. Snaith
Bad manners to his impudence, the pursy little humbug!
From Mated from the Morgue A tale of the Second Empire by John Augustus O'Shea
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